Product reviews for Teaching Creative Thinking

It is often easy to forget that one of the most important jobs in a society is the role of a teacher. They are the ones who impart knowledge, understanding and thinking into young minds, bringing learning to life, creating passions and interests into individuals who will thrive to undertake other important roles as doctors, carers, scientists, or roles that are yet to be imagined and created. For such a future, being able to creatively think about challenges and situations goes beyond learning the narrow curriculum and the knowledge gained from within. Although being able to successfully navigate through exam papers and receive good grades is vital for the individual student, being able to navigate through the further challenges that life will throw at them is even more crucial. Having the capability to develop creative thinking is becoming more necessary, helping the individual to synthesise, analyse and contextualise life experiences.

In their book, “Teaching Creative Thinking - Developing learners who generate ideas and can think critically”, Bill Lucas and Ellen Spencer have brought together creativity and creative thinking into five habits of mind (inquisitive, persistent, collaborative, disciplined and imaginative) which should be learned at school. Accompanied by activities within the book, the culture of a school and its community can be taught through the co-curriculum, alongside the more traditional curriculum areas.

Exploring pedagogies and teaching and learning methods that are most likely to cultivate students to become creative thinkers, Lucas and Spencer guide the reader through five inter-connected pedagogies to help plan lessons to build in critical thinking. Offering suggestions for starting out, the book guides teachers with some fantastic starter ideas - many new and familiar activities - encouraging students to play with imagination, explore possibilities and use intuition (to name just a few of the many sub-habits advocated throughout). Beyond the initial explorations, the authors then encourage schools to go deeper, offering extended ideas including mind-mapping, Socratic seminars, and also encouraging co-curricular experiences to extend creative thinking. Crucially, case studies are offered, showcasing how other schools have adopted some of the ideas and pedagogies articulated through the book, proving key pointers for schools wishing to develop their creative thinking opportunities further.

Fundamentally, Lucas and Spencer grapple with accountability (assessment) monster, that often holds a school back in developing such the crucial creative thinking philosophy, as some hold that assessing creative thinking is a bit too close to assessing personality. Yet the process of assessing requires schools to think fundamentally about the habits advocated throughout the book. It is equally vital that any form of assessment does not consume time or bureaucracy beyond the demands already expected on teachers, but the real-time and manageable collection of activities suggested can easily be planned within the lesson structure, offering feedback, guidance for next steps, and placing the student at the heart of the process.



Finally, the book draws together barriers which can often be faced when such a culture shift is suggested within a school community. The authors offer considered responses to typical resistance, highlighting the importance of creative thinking and integrating capabilities into the curriculum.

Click here to read the review on UKEdChat.